Customer Necktie Quilt ~~ Finished!

That's right.  The men's necktie quilt that I was making for a customer is off the list.  It was fun to figure out how the Dresden Plate would come together but even better was quilting it. 

I haven't heard back from my customer, so I really hope she likes it.  

I treated the negative space as though each Dresden ray extended to the edge of the lighter gray. 

That allowed me to play with different quilting motifs.  And I got to have fun in smaller spaces, so if I chose a motif that is rather slow going, I wasn't disappointed that I had a huge space to cover.

I also played with the rays themselves.  After dividing the background into quadrants, I placed the ties so that either 7 or 8 ties would fill each quadrant.  Although I didn't worry so much about placing the ties "just so," Richard came in and insisted that I rearrange them.  In the end, the four yellow ties  border each quadrant and create an X.  

The darker gray frame has a different quilting motif.  I used a curved filler that quilts up very fast and easy.  I added the center cover for the Dresden Plate using a solid blue tie that my customer chose.   And finally, created a border using what was left of some of the ties in the quilts.  

  
I was a little surprised at how much the border wanted to twist, but I assume the problem is that I cut the 2 1/2 strips at the wrong angle in my attempt to get enough border.  

The most difficult part of making this quilt was stitching in the center where the ties overlap.  Some of the ties are very thick, so my machine wanted some encouragement to push through, but we made it.  If I were to make another, I would definitely deconstruct the ties and remove the interfacing to reduce the bulk.  It turns out that deconstructing ties is much easier than I originally thought.

Linking up with
Crazy Mom Quilts (celebrating 9th year anniversary!)

Happy Quilting,